What is Social Learning Theory?



What is Social Learning Theory?

The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.

His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning (or modeling), this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviors.

The Modeling Process

Not all observed behaviors are effectively learned. Factors involving both the model and the learner can play a role in whether social learning is successful. Certain requirements and steps must also be followed. The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modeling process:

Attention:

In order to learn, you need to be paying attention. Anything that detracts your attention is going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If the model interesting or there is a novel aspect to the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to learning.

Retention:

The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning.

Reproduction:

Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to improvement and skill advancement.

Motivation:

Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled. Reinforcement and punishment play an important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if you see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes early each day.

Modeling Practice: Go through each of the five examples and discuss its relation to the four steps in modeling. In particular, how is the behaviour reinforced?

. A child learns to swing a baseball bat by watching how his older brother does it.

. A child watches their parents screaming and fighting to get what they want.

. A university student watches his friend use a strategy to pick up girls are the bar.

. A child learns to be violent through video games.

. A teenager watches the popular kids at school smoking.

Modeling Discussion Questions:

. How might parents use modeling to try get their children to act the way they want them to?

. Do you think that it is important for the model to be of the same gender? Why or why not?

How do peer groups reinforce behaviors (whether they consider them to be positive or negative). Think of some examples.

What does the Bobo doll experiment tell us about learning, modeling and aggression?

How is the Blue Bird story an example of observational learning? Do you think all animals are capable of observational learning? Make a list of animals that you think can learn through observation.

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In 1965, Albert Bandura claimed that children learned by observing a social model. Therefore, to validate this claim, Bandura conducted a perhaps famous experiment at Stanford University called the Bobo Doll experiment. This experiment was based on a study of aggression, where he used an inflatable plastic toy that looked like a cartoon clown. These bottom-weighted toys were then given to nursery school children. Each of the school children watched a short film in which a social model demonstrated aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. These aggressive responses included hitting the doll and shouting "Bang bang!" and "Sockeroo!". The nursery children were divided into three experimental conditions. The three conditions consisted of model-rewarded, model-punished, and no-consequences. Children were then placed in a room with Bobo and other props used by the social model. Bandura discovered that children in the no-consequence and model-rewarded conditions imitated more aggressive actions than the children in the model punishment condition. Bandura did another experiment to investigate how much the children actually learned from observing. This time children were offered a juice box for reproducing the model's behavior.

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Blue birds learned to rob cream from the top of milk bottles during the early part of the 20th century. They would pry the lids off of the bottles and then drink the milk. The lids were changed to aluminum foil and this briefly stopped the Bluebirds. A few years later they adapted to the use of aluminum foil seals on the bottles, learning to tear them to access the cream.

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